Filtering by Tag: Karen Aldridge

Artistic Director Barbara Gaines’s spirited new offering–the brisk and engrossing production of “Hamlet,” now playing at Chicago Shakespeare Theater—is extremely accessible, linear and concise, with considerable attention to our comprehension of the text. While the play explores the outer margins of meaning, we are allowed to check numerous emotional boxes before proceeding deeper into the story, scoring at a refreshingly high level of understanding with a universally top-flight cast.

Evolving in a contemporary setting devoid of elements that might detract, Gaines uses a significant—and inspired— structural device to sear the dramatic arc of the story’s second half. From this point forward, the audience never doubts that the stakes have risen in the deadly gambit that follows. Gaines’s clever and fresh interpretation mines the guilt, grief, anger and despair—and genuine mirth—inherent in every character of Shakespeare’s masterpiece.

Maurice Jones, as Hamlet, brilliantly navigates the shock and sorrow caused by his father’s murder and the abhorrent distaste for the actions of his mother Gertrude (Karen Aldridge) who turns so quickly to the twisted affection of his uncle Claudius (Tim Decker). Spiraling into a manic state—in which he violently rejects the love of Ophelia (Rachel Nicks), confounds his allies and, ultimately, in a fit of unhinged rage, commits murder himself—Jones’s Hamlet at once bristles with complexity and immerses in remorse that explodes at everyone around him.

The players—here a rag-tag assembly of leather and tattoos—unwittingly expose the King’s murder, which rightly, and naturally, serves as a climatic twist. The resulting pace allows for the action to thrust forward to the point when Polonius (a wheelhouse role for Larry Yando), who had exposed Hamlet’s darker side toward his daughter to Gertrude and Claudius, is himself slain in Gertrude’s chamber, which drives Ophelia mad and sends Laertes (Paul Deo Jr.) on a path of revenge and retribution of his own.

Hamlet’s legion of comrades—Sean Allan Krill as Horatio, Alex Goodrich as Rosencrantz and Samuel Taylor as Guildenstern—add depth and an earnest sense of comradery, as does the appearance of Mike Nussbaum, a national stage treasure, in the role of the Gravedigger.

Along with the deep-seated emotions of betrayal and revenge that course through the play, in the end, Gaines chooses images of loss and redemption to frame her superb reimagining into a tragic story about a son’s undying love for his father that will appeal to all ages.

The world premiere of Christina Anderson’s “How To Catch Creation” directed by Niegel Smith that opened Monday at Goodman Theatre, has all the elements of an elaborate jigsaw puzzle that, when complete, forms a tapestry of interconnecting relationships. The pieces of Anderson’s richly humanistic work involves five people all searching for the creative passion that births inspiration, fulfillment and love. Anderson’s skillfully chiseled scenes and fierce writing proves that “Anything can really and truly happen” as her characters discover their corresponding edges and nest together in a fascinating and cleverly amusing exploration of possibilities.

Director Niegel Smith, whose stirring interpretation of Suzan-Lori Parks’ ‘Father Comes Home From The Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3)’ played last season in the Goodman’s Owen, has paired the superby talented Karen Aldridge (Tami) and Keith Randolph Smith (Griffin) as longtime friends who share secrets, dreams and expectations when we first meet them in 2014. Tami is a painter and directs an art program at the university in the Bay Area of San Francisco. Griffin has been wrongfully imprisoned for most of his adult life, until his conviction was recently overturned with Tami’s help. Into their lives comes Riley (May Vinice Prentiss) and Stokes (Bernard Gilbert) who are hoping to make a life together. Stokes has been repeatedly rejected from art programs and Riley, an IT specialist, takes matters in her own hands to make a direct entry on his behalf. Jasimine Bracey plays a burgeoning author, G.K Marche, whose work figures prominently as a buoy for the elements of the story that are revealed in the mid-60s home that Marche shares with her partner Natalie, played by Ayanna Bria Bakari.

Aldridge’s smart, exuberant performance will grow on you, bubbling with passion and vulnerability that is heartfelt and sincere. With Smith, who never succombs to the darker sides of the frustration and overwheming resistance brought about by his impassioned desire to have a child, the two keep Anderson’s characters vibrant and real. Prentiss and Gilbert successfully keep pushing the restart button on both their own complicated relationship and their interactions with others, not an easy assignment in a close knit ensemble with radial shifts in time and place. Through the various twists and turns of the emotional and storytelling dial, the work of Bracey and Bakari is engrossing and delivers some of finest and most touching moments of the piece.

Todd Rosenthal’s fascinating design mirrors the interconnectivity of the characters, finished on all four sides, shifting exquisitely on two nearly concentric turntables with the evolving scenes to he piercing tones of Justin Ellington’s original score. The contemporary costumes by Jenny Mannis glimmer under Allen Lee Hughes intricate lighting design.

“How To Catch Creation” evolved from a staged reading at the 2017 Goodman Theatre New Stages Series, a testiment to the theatre’s long-standing commitment to the development of new works and the high-caliber emerging playwrights like Christina Anderson who are creating them.

At the core of this work is the idea that we are all authors of our own story from its conception and birth to whatever comes next. The story that we are meant to tell, that gives us meaning, purpose and leaves behind a legacy, is unique to each us. Sometimes we must soldier through to whatever scenario is on the other side. And then there are times that we must just let go, lead with the heart, and trust our gut. Either way creation is a process that requires others. We cannot do it alone.

Firmly affixed... In 1995, two years after Eugene Ionesco died, A Red Orchid Theatre mounted a production of his 1953 play Victims of Duty. That production, much like the one that is currently playing on North Wells, was directed by Shira Piven and featured founding ensemble members Michael Shannon and Guy Van Swearingen. If you are counting, 23 years have passed and as Piven admits in the program notes, between the three of them, they now have six kids. The brilliant actress Karen Aldridge is the third central character in the story about a detective (Shannon) who visits the apartment of Choubert (Swearwingen) and his wife Madeline (Aldridge) in search of the former tenant, Mallot – three capitivating performances that will have you firmly affixed to 'le siege.'

A summer bonus...In addition to Victims, AROT mounted Hunger and Thirst, directed by Shannon in 2005 and The Killer in 1997 none of which I had the pleasure of seeing, so I was thrilled that the 25th Anniversary season included a summer bonus remount of the rarely-produced Victims of Duty. The question that I have heard most often is: “Why revisit this play?” to which I say: “Why not? I could watch these exceptional actors fold towels for 90 minutes and be thoroughly entertained." Having now seen the show, and given the aquatic nature of things that are unique to this production, there probably is a fair amount of towel-folding going on.

Somewhat abstract... Victims, Piven notes, is an elevation of the meanings that were, in 1995, “very personal and somewhat abstract” to the present where there is a “social|political resonance that we can’t escape, as much as we might want to.” All that water may be a metaphor for our current societal submersion. That said, we are not supposed to delve too deeply or, as Piven says, "...try too hard for perfect unserstanding." It is Theater of the Absurd, after all. (There was a moment, midway through the Saturday press matinee, when Michael Shannon, coming out from a hostage-like situation, had a nick on his cheek that developed into a stream of very real looking blood. And it was. Nothing to stop the show, but it did add a bit of reality to the absurdist drama that only live theatre can provide.)

Dark reaches... The Detective, who is also a lover and despot, leads Choubert on an exploration of his mind descending and ascending through the dark reaches of imagination from patriotic husband to son to infant while Madeline’s journey from wife to lover and old age all find their place within the pages of a play. It is a detective story, of course, the kind about which all great drama revolves, we are told. If you are having a hard time following this, you will not be alone. Such is the world that Ionesco creates, where traditional perceptions and characterizations are virtually non-existent. Victims of Duty may not be everyone’s cup of coffee, but there are plenty of cups to go around.

Oddly engrossing...In addition to those mentioned, there are two additional characters Nicholas D’eu (Richard Cotovsky) and The Lady (ensemble member Mierka Girten) who are page turners for the larger work. In the theatre, as in life, it is the cyclical nature of things that matter most and these two lay in wait for the next chapter. I consider myself a bit of a page turner after this experience and extremely fortunate to have had the opportunity to share the same intimate space with this company of actors – highly-skilled theatrical artists who have recreated a uniquely watchable, oddly engrossing, water-infused escapade. I will not soon forget the experience and if you have already made plans to attend, I am sure that you will agree. If not, you may be completely out of luck unless you stand-by for a ticket. The run of the show has been sold-out for months and for good reason. Magnifique!